One of the perks of living in a such multi culture city like Melbourne is you can find foods from almost everywhere in the world. The word “every” here also refers to my home country, Indonesia. Actually there are quite a lot of Indonesian in Australia in general and in Melbourne in particular therefore no wonder that we can find some Indonesian eateries especially in the city.

This time is about Kedai Satay, an Indonesian Restaurant that I visited with two of my cousin’s friends from Perth. It was a such a funny meeting since all of us have not met each other before but fortunately it turned out as a great dinner time. They asked me taking them to an Indonesian Restaurant and I offered Kedai Satay. It was a warm pre-winter night when we went there. Well, it was warm for me as a Melbournian but those Perth folks were feeling cold. :p I arrived around 7 and both of them have been waiting for me there. As we were all starving, it didn’t take a long wait until we decided what to have.

Kedai Satay is a regular 2 storey restaurant in the city of Melbourne. Unlike most of the Indonesian Restaurants I have visited, we do not need to order and pay in advance. So customers can take a sit, have a look at their menus and order once they are ready. I always prefer this kind of restaurant rather than the order-pay first.

Grilled Beef Ribs

This seems to be one of their best and most favorite menu! My friend ordered this and it came to all of the expectations. It smells good and the taste was even better. The meat was tender and juicy with peanut-sweet soy sauce and fried shallot served with rice and also crackers. Everything went very well together! AU$ 14.50

Nasi Uduk

Nasi uduk is one of Indonesian style in cooking rice with coconut milk so the rice tastes savory and has sweet aroma. Nasi uduk served with fried chicken, fried noodle, egg, sambal (Indonesian relish), kering kentang (thinly sliced fried potato and peanut mixed together) and also fried shallot. Fried shallot is kind of necessary when it comes to Indonesian food even though not everyone likes or actually uses it.

AU$ (+- 12.50)

Nasi Ayam Penyet

Ayam penyet is one of Indonesian’s most popular and favorite dish, which is sambal (relish) that crushed over fried chicken and usually served with rice. In Kedai Satay, they use fried relish which tastes dominantly sweet, it was quite nice but not how I like ayam penyet’s relish would be. I know it may sound not very objective as I love savory and salty foods than the sweet ones. But I think it would be nicer if the relish has both combination of sweetness and savory rather than being too dominant in one flavor.

The chicken was fried nicely, pretty big and they gave me the crumbs too that I like very much. The only issue about my ayam penyet is the plating and vegetables’ cutting. I must say, it was not appetizing at all. Tell me what do you think of the photo below.🙂

AU$ – 10.50 (8,50 for Ayam Penyet and 2.00 for white rice)

Pempek

Pempek is a traditional dish from Palembang, South Sumatra in Indonesia. It is a savory fish cake that usually served with noodles and dark sauce (sweet-sour sauce because of the using of vinegar). The pempek (fish cake) in Kedai Satay was a little bit too salty but the dark sauce was nice. The same issue with ayam penyet, I think the plating also did not go well. It was served in a bowl and they mixed the fish cakes with the sauce directly.

AU$ 8.00

I reckon all the foods are just pretty good in a very reasonable price too. It is not bad for someone who misses Indonesian food or just want to have a great grilled ribs (I think the grilled selections are actually their strength, so it is suggested to order those ones). Besides the location and food, everything else was just regularly done. Even so, I had a great time in Kedai Satay and I was glad that my friends really enjoyed the Indonesian dinner too.